Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Don't pardon Libby

The implications of this trial are likely to be far-reaching and long-lasting. There were few officials with greater influence or power during the first four years of the Bush administration than Libby. He was not only the vice president's chief of staff, but also assistant to the president himself in national security matters. But Libby's importance in the Bush administration is reflected by far more than his formal titles.[]When it comes to the political movement that has dominated the American government for the last six years, Scooter Libby was at its very crux, a close intimate of America's most powerful political officials.

Today's event sends a potent and unmistakable message, one that is absolutely reverberating in the West Wing: If Libby can be convicted of multiple felonies, then any Bush official who has committed crimes can be as well. Not only are Bush officials subject to the rule of law (their radical theories of executive power to the contrary notwithstanding), they are also vulnerable to legal consequences (the defeatist beliefs of some Bush critics notwithstanding). Having the nation watch this powerful Bush official be declared a criminal -- despite having been defended by the best legal team money can buy -- resoundingly reaffirms the principle that our highest political officials can and must be held accountable when they break the law."

IAEA: Iran Seems To Have Halted Uranium Enrichment ProgramThe head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran seems to have at least temporarily halted its uranium-enrichment program. Mohamad ElBaradei said the pause could represent an attempt to de-escalate Iran's conflict with the UN Security Council, which is considering new sanctions against Iran.

Rice Names Prominent Neoconservative Hawk to State Dept PostSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named a prominent neoconservative who has advocated for the overthrow of the Iranian government to be the new counselor of the State Department. The official -- Eliot Cohen -- had been described as "the most influential neoconservative in academe." Two months after the Sept. 11th attacks, Cohen advocated for going after Iran. He wrote in the Wall Street Journal QUOTE "The overthrow of the first theocratic revolutionary Muslim state and its replacement by a moderate or secular government, however, would be no less important a victory in this war than the annihilation of bin Laden." Eliot Cohen has also described the so-called war on terrorism as World War Four.

Whistle-blower AT&T technician Mark Klein says his effort to reveal alleged government surveillance of domestic Internet traffic was blocked not only by U.S. intelligence officials but also by the top editors of the Los Angeles Times.

In his first broadcast interview, which can be seen tonight on World News and Nightline, Klein describes how he stumbled across "secret NSA rooms" being installed at an AT&T switching center in San Francisco and later heard of similar rooms in at least six other cities, including Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Jose and Seattle.[]Klein says he collected 120 pages of technical documents left around the San Francisco office showing how the NSA was installing "splitters" that would allow it to copy both domestic and international Internet traffic moving through AT&T connections with 16 other trunk lines.

"It's gobs and gobs of information going across the Internet," Klein says.[]But after working for two months with LA Times reporter Joe Menn, Klein says he was told the story had been killed at the request of then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and then-director of the NSA Gen. Michael Hayden.[]Klein says what he knows won't help terrorists.

"The only people that are being kept in the dark is the American people who are being misled and not realizing, not being told that their private information, that their liberties are being destroyed and tramped on," he said."

hmmm. no wonder sibel is having so much trouble - both with the govt and with the media.

7 comments:

I would like to know what Mr. Hayden knew about 9/11 BEFORE THE ATTACKS.

Too bad the assholes in Congress were too polite (corrupt) to ask him about this at his CIA Director confirmation hearings.

Head of the NSA during 9/11 and the guy gets promoted? WTF?

Sorry. I forgot. I'm a conspiracy theorist for wondering why all these high ranking government officials got promoted after 9/11.

FISA warrants are retroactive so the idea that warrantless spying was needed to combat terrorism is TOTAL BS. Congress knows this. Are they too corrupt to do proper oversight, even with a Democratic majority?

Noise, Muckraker has two great articles out here and here. He explains the 'fat' Osama confession video by saying that the original video was in PAL format. When converted to the US NTSC format the 'fat' Osama results. I must say Ed Hass presents very compelling evidence that the Osama confession video is real. That doesn't mean Osama carried out 911, of course, he may just have been claiming credit. Hass also claims that the video was made on Sept 26 2001 using Saudi Intelligence acting for the CIA and that the US had the opportunity then to capture or kill bin Laden but they chose not to do so because they still needed him as a reason to invade Afghanistan.

So then we still have to explain an alleged interview with Osama on September 28, 2001 published in a Pakistani daily newspaper, Ummat where he specifically denies carrying out 9/11:

"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle....It is the United States, which is perpetrating every maltreatment on women, children and common people . . . " (link)

The contradictions are glaring. I tentatively take the view that al Qaeda was a terrorist group fully penetrated by various intelligence agencies including elements of the CIA and Mossad. I still think US elements supported the 9/11 terrorists in a big way to carry out their aims for Middle East expansion. There are some excellent articles just out by Christopher Ketcham examining the close Israeli- 9/11 terrorist links here, here and here.

I don't know if Libby should be pardoned or not; it's a tough call. But I would like to point out to anyone who doesn't know yet that someone put PardonLibby.org up for sale on eBay. I wonder what it'll go for. Here's the address:

I don't know where the military/CIA outrage is if this latest Bin Laden story is true...Schroen and Berntsen lost men in Afghanistan going after Bin Laden. Then again, there is the issue as to why Bin Laden was not captured before 9/11. Offers from Sudan (I know some say this is BS but enough reputable authors have made the case that Sudan did offer to turn him over) and the alleged CIA meeting in Dubai.

I listened to Horton's interview (and Meria Hellers) with Ketcham. Still don't know what to make of it. One, Mossad wouldn't celebrate a terrorist attack in public. Too suspicious with nothing to gain from it. Perhaps their was some sort of blackmail effort in play. I wonder if they (all the Mossad operations, not just the moving van) were hired by the CIA to conduct domestic surveillance.